Fasting & Abstinence

This is basically the post that pushed me over the edge to do the blog.  As I sat trying to compile something yesterday on fasting, since it was Friday, I realized an informative and succinct Instagram post wasn't going to cut it.  So here we are, and here's really the first intentional blog post.  If you like it and want me to keep it up, let me know.  If you think everything I've written is drivel, also let me know.  (I didn't proof read this after I wrote it, I scanned for red squiggly marks for obvious issues, fixed them, and moved on).  I want all of us to get to the kingdom together.

 So, fasting and abstinence, that just for Lent right?  Yes and no.  (Mostly no).

I grew up in an older household, just about every Friday we ate fish.  A tuna sandwich for lunch and fish & chips for dinner were staples.  I never thought much of it as I grew up, mentally, I sort of grew up with the outlook that we didn't eat meat on Friday for religious purposes.  As I grew older this would occasionally deviate without any correction, therefore I assumed it to be an old norm, cast of with both baby and bathwater after the Council.

As I've grown older and delved back into my faith, the teachings of the Church and her venerable traditions, I've changed much of how I live my life, some out of necessity, but much also out of desire.  Prior to Vatican II, the norm amongst Catholics was at least abstinence from meat and in many cases also fasting on all Friday's, save you should be graced with a Friday Solemnity.  Much of the world still practices this way, and we'll take a look at why things are different here in the United States.

According to the USCCB, "Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence... Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence," further, "... the norms for fasting are from age 18 until age 59.  When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to one full meal... abstinence from meat are binding... from age 14 onwards."  Here's where 21st Century American Catholics really get challenged (/s), "If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil... as the 'paschal fast' to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and celebrate more readily his resurrection."  

So, lets see what Canon Law has to say about all of this.  Canons 1249-1253 cover "Days of Penance."  

1249: "The divine law binds all the Christian faithful to do penance each in his or her own way.  In order for all to be united among themselves by some common observance of penance, however, penitential days are prescribed on which the Christian faithful devote themselves in a special way to prayer, perform works of piety, and deny themselves by fulfilling their own obligations more faithfully and especially by observing fast and abstinence, according to the norm of the following canons."

1250: "The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent."

1251: "Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.  Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday."

1253: "The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast." 

How much of that did you remember from CCD? All of it right?  Yeah, me too.  I didn't want to copy all of that, but I also didn't want to over summarize it.  But here's where I'll try:  So, Fridays are days of penance and abstinence, per Canon Law.  However, bishops conferences can make alterations to this, unfortunately.

So what did the American episcopate have to say about all of this that has led us to not understanding or even knowing that there is a different universal prescription?  Let's take a look at the "Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence" issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on November 18, 1966.

12.  "...we ask, urgently and prayerfully, that we, as people of God, make of the entire Lenten Season a period of special penitential observance.  Following the instruction of the Holy See, we declare that the obligation both to fast and abstain from meat, an obligation observed under more strict formality by our fathers in faith, still binds on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  

13.  "In keeping with the letter and spirit of Pope Paul's Constitution Poenitemini, we preserved for our dioceses the tradition of abstinence from meat on each of the Fridays of Lent, confident that no Catholic Christian will lightly hold himself excused from this penitential practice."

14.  "For all other weekdays of Lent, we strongly recommend participation in daily Mass and a self-imposed observance of fasting."  

17.  This talks about how Ember Days are no longer mandatory but places value in continuing to observe them.  

Christ Died for Our Salvation on Friday

18.  "Gratefully remembering this, Catholic peoples from time immemorial have set apart Friday for special penitential observance by which they gladly suffer with Christ that they may one day be glorified with Him.  This is the heart of the tradition of abstinence from meat on Friday..."

19.  "Changing circumstances... have made some of our people feel that the renunciation of the eating of meat is not always and for everyone the most effective means of practicing penance."

21.  "For these and related reasons, the Catholic bishops of the United States, far from downgrading the traditional penitential observance of Friday, and motivated precisely by the desire to give the spirit of penance greater vitality, especially on Fridays, the day that Jesus died, urge our Catholic people henceforth to be guided by the following norms."

22-23.  Fridays remain penitential.

24.  "... even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat.  We do so in hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as we formerly did in obedience to Church law."

25.  It's no longer required, don't be scrupulous about it.  

26.  Don't hold it against those who cease to observe it.  "Friday, please God, will acquire among us other forms of penitential witness which may become as much a part of the devout way of life in the future as Friday abstinence from meat."

27.  Do charitable works.

28.  "... let it not be said that by this action, implementing the spirit of renewal coming out of the Council, we have abolished Friday, repudiated the holy traditions of our fathers, or diminished the insistence of the Church on the fact of sin and the need for penance.  Rather, let it be proved by the spirit in which we enter upon prayer and penance, not excluding fast and abstinence freely chosen, that these present decisions and recommendations of this conference of bishops will herald a new birth of loving faith and more profound penitential conversion."

How'd that work out?  The venerable bishops asked that we not say that they, "...have abolished Friday, repudiated the holy traditions of our fathers, or diminished the insistence of the Church on the fact of sin and the need for repentance."  Ok, so I won't say that it is what they did.  As far as their hopes for a, "...new birth of loving faith and more profound penitential conversion," I think it's fallen short.  If you're lucky enough to have fixed times of penance at your church, what does it look like?  Is it half an hour before the anticipated Sunday Mass on on Saturday evenings?  An hour before?  What are the lines like?  Out the door or streaming around the corner?  Or is it by appointment only?  There are two sacraments, essential to salvation that we can avail ourselves to countlessly, Holy Communion and Penance.  We must hope that Father has time to pencil us in to confess our sins?  

So what's my point?  Are we required to fast and abstain every Friday?  No.  Are there benefits to doing so?  Absolutely.  If you grew up after the council, was any of the above even lightly touched upon by your catechists?  There was a crisis after the council to make the laity feel more "engaged."  In reality what the laity needed was to be better informed.  Most likely there was a better synopsis in the Canon Law quoted above and even the letter from the US Bishops as to what the reasons behind fasting and abstinence are than any of us received in CCD.  

We are members of the universal Catholic Church.  Should we not desire to do what the rest of the Church is called to do?  As the bishops had hoped, do we continue to desire to do penance and seek holiness?  We must look at what we are required to do as the bare minimum.  Do we get to heaven by doing the bare minimum or do we get there by, to quote Jordan Burke's apostolate and "Do The Harder Thing"?  In law enforcement we have a rule when it comes to enforcement of laws that have multiple angles of attack.  If there are competing statutes from federal, state and local levels, you pick whichever one is the more stringent, which in my case is usually state law (unlike church hierarchy which seems to be opposite).  Another example is if there is a state threshold of tolerance for something, which due to its length of time on the books is now higher than a federal threshold, you would prosecute under the federal law.  Neither set of laws can excuse an offense, the lower bar is what you must go with.  If that makes any sense.  

If you, as the bishops requested, have another form of penance that you do on Fridays in lieu of abstinence and you draw spiritual benefit from it, awesome, keep it up.  If every Friday passes without even a passing thought of Good Friday or a glance at a crucifix, maybe you need to change up your routine.  After falling by the wayside with it through college and some years after, I drew back to the traditional and universal rules for abstinence on Fridays.  I also try my best to fast every Friday as well.  I also add fasting and abstinence on Wednesdays in Lent, another passion related tradition.  On Spy Wednesday Judas set into motion what would culminate on the Cross by betraying our Lord for a sum of silver.  

At the end of the day, you must chose the path that best fits your state of life, but that does not mean doing nothing.